Surface cleaning appliances such as vacuum cleaners for cleaning floors, upholstery, and other surfaces in a home or workplace are generally known in the prior art. The most popular household vacuum cleaners are either upright standing or canister style vacuum cleaners, although other more specialized types such as handheld vacuums, central air vacuum systems, electric brooms, and shop vacuums are also available. Household vacuum cleaners typically include a primary electrically motorized surface cleaning component which includes a spinning rod having a series of affixed stiff bristles segregated in individual circumferential rows, forming a rolling brush for cleaning floor areas such as rugs or hard floor surfaces by passing the surface cleaning component across the surface to be cleaned in a generally back and forth motion, whereby dirt and debris is collected into a bag or receptacle by a suction force provided by a vacuum unit. Canister style vacuums allow for the handle to detach from the surface cleaning component where it then can be attached to other cleaning attachments. The canister handle is normally connected to a flexible extension hose, which hose is connected to the vacuum unit. Most upright vacuum cleaners are equipped with a separate flexible extension hose that is connected independent of the surface cleaning component. Both the canister style vacuum handle and the upright vacuum flexible hose terminate with a rigid coupler hose used for connecting various vacuum attachments such as rigid extension hoses and other purposed cleaning attachments used to clean those areas that cannot be cleaned using the primary flooring roller brush component.
There are many vacuum device attachments on the market today and vary in shapes and sizes to accommodate various cleaning projects, for instance, a crevice tool can in one example be used to clean between cushions and in another instance a stiff bristled tool is used to vacuum debris from the cushion's top surface. The present invention, however, is primarily concerned with those attachments that are used for dusting smooth, hard surfaces. Also available are rigid extension hoses which are connected between the vacuum's original flexible hose and an attachment to reach further areas out of reach. A problem that occurs upon the purchase of a vacuum machine is that the assortment of attachments provided do not cover all the cleaning needs of a home or workplace, especially for the purpose of dusting in a comfortable and thoroughly complete manner as well as being lightweight. To fill the various cleaning needs, consumers therefore must purchase additional vacuum attachments that are more applicable to their specific cleaning chores. Such additional purposed vacuum attachments are either purchased from the manufacturer of purchased vacuum machine, or similar or better designed vacuum attachment is purchased from a different manufacturer.
When either close-up or distant dust cleaning is required, known vacuum attachments on the market do not adequately meet the basic dusting needs of the consumer. This is particularly true with respect to close up dusting, where consumers usually resort to old fashioned dusting methods either by hand or by the use of a feather duster and/or a rag, since the available vacuum dusting attachments are too bulky or odd-shaped to fit in particular spaces, and/or it is inordinately difficult to a direct the dust collecting aperture opening towards the area to be vacuumed. Other reasons include that most available attachments on the market today are rigid throughout the whole of the attachment, or a flexible area, if included, is usually in one location only. An example of this would be an attachment that is configured to reach under furniture, where the attachment bends only at one point and allows the attachment to flatten out so the user doesn't have to lay on the floor to guide the direction of the attachment. Most vacuum attachments once affixed onto a rigid extension hose are usually fixed in a set or limited radii positions, and thus are not sufficiently flexible to reach specific target nooks and crannies with the delicacy required for dusting items such as inside shelf corners, statuettes, under stereo equipment, Venetian blinds large and mini, and such. Some attachments are so unwieldy as to be of any use, usually requiring the consumer to expend too much effort of using their hand, wrist, or body maneuvering while endeavoring to accomplish the same chore that ends up being easier to accomplish with a rag or feather duster. Much time is also expended in changing various different attachments seeking the desired cleaning effect. Since use of a feather duster and/or a rag to dust usually just re-spreads the dust back into the household air, the dusting chore is short lived as this newly disturbed air-borne dust just resettles upon other surfaces. Sometimes a consumer may try to use both a vacuum and a feather duster or similar dusting apparatus by leaning the open vacuum hose near the area to be dusted hoping that the newly released air-borne dust is captured and transferred into the vacuum receptacle. The consumer is already significantly burdened by having to carry around specific purposed cleaning attachments, rigid extension hoses for distant out of reach areas, and then is further burdened by also carrying around additional feather dusters, rags, and such, with their accompanying cans/bottles of spray and liquid cleaners.
Vacuum attachments available on the market today for the purpose of dusting therefore have limited properties in catching dust nodes. For obvious reasons, there can only be so many open apertures on an attachment since there must be some solid walls to contain and provide the vacuum suction and the larger the aperture, the more dissipated the vacuum suction becomes. As a result, the majority of dusting vacuum devices have small apertures, which require extra sweeping back and forth to collect dust. Another problem with vacuum dusting attachments on the market today is that each attachment is shaped for specific dusting purposes. For example, the consumer will carry around, while cleaning, a bent shaped attachment to reach and dust the upper blades of a ceiling fan, and additionally will usually need to carry an accompanying rigid extension hose that has been purposely bent to facilitate the angle of the attachment, so that the open aperture faces the upper ceiling fan blade correctly. When the consumer is finished, they have to change out the dusting attachment and/or rigid extension hoses to dust another type of surface, the point being is when it comes to dusting, the consumer can see the futility of using the vacuum machine for dusting as it becomes a time-consuming chore of dusting. The consumer is faced with repeated movements by making sure the aperture opening is placed in the correct position for collecting dust, making extra sweeping movements due to the limited size of the aperture(s), and the necessary repeated interchanging of attachments in the process of matching the dusting attachment to each particular dusting chore. Consumers end up carrying arm loads of various purposed attachments, and wasting time in reconfiguring of the placement of attachments in relation to each device's configuration. They also must endure sometimes excruciating maneuvering of their body to direct the attachment's aperture opening to where dusting is needed, including the unsafe use of ladders, chairs, the top of wobbly couch cushions, and such. Furthermore, when distant areas need to be cleaned, the consumer adds any number of rigid extension hoses which make vacuuming even more dangerous as the added weight of the extensions make it harder for the consumer balance, and also adds the possibility that the longer the rigid extension hoses are the more uncontrollable they become, whereby the unwieldy length causes the attachment and/or hose to inadvertently knock over, for example, lamps, or damage unintended objects such as walls that they come into contact with. When extra rigid extension hoses are used, the attachment placed at the farthest end again is in its rigid position and once there, the whole assembly must be moved back down towards the consumer so the attachment's aperture opening can be manually repositioned into another desired direction.
The consumer encounters further problems with vacuum attachments especially with respect to where they should grasp the wand and/or the attachment when connected together. Any time an attachment is affixed to a corresponding hose, the hand is forced to endure the uneven crack formed between the two attachments so as to use the wrist to guide the attachment in the desired direction since a comfortable handle to grasp is not included on most attachments, or to the knowledge of this inventor, none that can be found. The consumer therefore resorts to holding the rigid wand, or the uneven connected site area, especially when using the flexible hose and rigid coupler hose extending out of the upright vacuum cleaner. Even though the flexible hose of a canister vacuum ends in a handle before an attachment is affixed to the rigid coupler hose, consumers who use the canister's vacuum's handle will find that the grip is usually oversized, awkward, and on the heavy size, due to the handle's original intent of use for directing the path of the main motorized primary surface cleaning component, and not necessarily designed to enhance nor being convenient to use with individual affixed attachments. Therefore, either using an upright or canister style vacuum cleaner, the consumer encounters physical discomfort while trying to dust. Many modern consumer devices, from kitchen utensils and so on, have a handle which is made to fit comfortably in the user's hand, and in addition most of the handles in these other markets are made of a soft thermal plastic rubber (TPR) material or a combination of hard and soft/padded material. Such comfort handles are beneficial to all users and particularly to the many individuals that suffer from carpel tunnel syndrome, osteoarthritis, and other painful maladies of the hand, wrist, arms, and back. In addition to a softer and a more comfortable grip handle, devices offered in other markets are also sometimes manufactured with grip-like protrusions so the user has in their possession a slip resistant article, which is invaluable when a cleaning chore produces sweat on the individual's hands. There is therefore a need for a vacuum attachment tool that can be used to easily and effectively pick up dust and debris which has an ergonomic and comfortable handle which makes holding and manipulating the device easier in a more effective manner, while also being able to swivel in a specific direction when needed.
Another problem with known vacuum dusting attachments is that for the most part there is nonexistent or inadequate lighting incorporated in the individual attachments themselves, which would facilitate seeing the dusting area to be cleaned, especially areas that are in shadow such as behind other items on a shelf, or the lighting due to the time of day. Usually only the motorized primary surface cleaning component is complemented with lighting to light up the area in front of it to be vacuumed, but it would be especially an advantage to have peripherally overall lighting on an attachment to be able to see all surrounding areas that are being vacuumed, thus speeding up and improving the cleaning process. The advantages of providing lighting on an attachment itself are twofold, in that the area to be dusted is lit up, and the emitted lighted beams allow the consumer to actually see and confirm that the dust nodes/particles are being collected into the vacuum attachment. Unfortunately, due to the lack of sufficient lighting on vacuum attachments, a consumer might devise to precariously place a lamp closer to an area, or employ the uncoordinated use of a flashlight to obtain the same results.
As aforementioned, rigid extension hoses quickly become unwieldy and heavy to maneuver while using an attachment at their farthest end. Additionally, rigid extension hoses are of a determined length. When a consumer needs an attachment to reach a distant area to be cleaned, a single rigid extension hose might be too short which might necessitate the consumer to stand dangerously on ladders or furniture. When additional rigid extension hoses are added to reach the target area, the hose length might be too long, causing the consumer to then move furniture out of the way so as to be able to move backwards. If unmindful while focusing on the distant vacuum attachment while cleaning, there is the possibility of the consumer tripping and falling backwards over furniture, or even falling backwards down stairs. Besides trying to match the distance required, the consumer will become frustrated further trying other various ways of focusing the rigid vacuum attachment's aperture opening to the target area using the inflexible and unbendable rigid extension hose.